“While traditional roles will still continue to exist long into the future, our profession is increasingly identified with a broader range of roles embedded into their organisations and communities in different ways.

The skillsets required of information professionals are changing and developing all the time in response to the changing needs of information users, changing formats and the changing contexts in which information, knowledge and data are used.

We believe that the diversity and adaptability of our skills is a strength which we need to build on to secure the long-term future of the information professional workforce.”

CILIP is committed to helping sector employers access the information professional skills, competencies and expertise they need, now and for the future.

Sector skills model and career planning tool

CILIP is responsible for publishing and developing the ‘PKSB’, which combines:

An evolving model of the hard and soft skills needed by information professionals

An interactive tool for skills mapping and career planning

We work on an ongoing basis with employers across a range of industry sectors to identify how their skills needs are changing and to incorporate these changes into the PKSB. This means we are able to provide an evolving ongoing standard to support you in recruitment and staff development.

Apprenticeships

CILIP believes that employers in all sectors should be able to offer high-quality apprenticeships, which help build their information capability and develop up-to-date skills. This is why CILIP has taken the lead in developing a new Apprenticeship Standard for Librarians and Information Professionals.

Initially, our work has focused on a Level 3 Apprenticeship Standard, which was approved in October 2018. In the next 12-18 months, we will be consulting our Employer Partners about the possibility of developing further standards, including for Level 5, 6 and Degree Apprenticeships.

We welcome organisations as part of our Employer Partner Scheme who can work with us to support the development of a future-ready information professional and library workforce.